The Sweatshop of Love Blog

After a surprisingly successful World Wide Knit in Public Day, (surprisingly successful meaning Lori, Gil, Martin and I ate an entire freezer bag of seriously delicious chocolate chip cookies that Lori made and brought for us) I needed a nutritious dinner.

Veggie Stir Fry Rice

PT and I used the left over rice from last night’s scallop dinner and stir fried up some carrots, broccoli, onions, and radishes for an amazing batch of veggie stir fry. We used some teriyaki stir fry sauce, a little soy sauce, and some ginger! This was sweet and crisp and exactly what I needed to combat all the sugar I ate earlier in the day.

We kept that healthy feeling going and (I’m a total liar. After dinner we met up with some dodgeball playing friends, then had some time to kill before rocking some Polish karaoke up on Division and Central Park. We went to El Cid on Kedzie and ate some nachos with cheese and guacamole and beans! Then we needed dessert so we walked across the street to McDonalds and got soft serve cones. The correct beginning of this paragraph is, ‘We were huge fatties, and to get back on track we’) Muffin Clubbed our way over to the Logan Square Farmers Market this morning before Sweater Club.

Bounty

We got some weird looking long radishes, a lot of mushrooms, and green garlic that I assumed was scallions before Vera corrected me. Green garlic is like a cross between a scallion and garlic, apparently, and can be used like a scallion. She totally talked me into it and I’m glad she did.

Chopped and Ready to Go!

We had omelets on the brain, so we chopped a few mushrooms, a radish, and the entire green garlic, stalk and all.

Best. Omelet. Ever.

See how pretty they turned out?! I’m so proud! You know I have a problem with the omelet flipping. We sprinkled some parmesan on the top and it was the perfect cheese. Served with potatoes? I savored every bite.

And now we have a shit ton of mushrooms, radishes, and green garlic! What to do with mushrooms? Can you give me a P-I-Z-Z-A! Hellz yeah! I’ve been craving pizza something fierce and what better excuse to bake one up than a fridge full of mushrooms?

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

My rewards program totally worked for my brain. I didn’t know if I could knit 26 inches for that skirt, but I knew I could knit 10 inches, and rewarded myself with a sleeve.

Sweater Dress Sleeve One!

Now I’m back on the skirt. I’m at about 13 inches and want to get to 18 before I knit the other sleeve. It actually looks like something now! The sleeve got me excited…

Pudge Rodriguez

but it blew Pudge Rodriguez away! She just couldn’t handle how awesome it looks.

And that is about the position I took after the Mexican Feast PT and I made on Saturday.

Fish Taco+Burrito=Love

One of PT’s specialties is the fish taco. We got tilapia super cheap at Emilio’s, cooked it up, threw it in the taco with salsa (with added fresh mango!) and avocado. The burrito has become my specialty! This one was with black eyed peas, tomato, guacamole, some of that home made mango salsa, and spinach.

Plantains!

I even fried up some plantains in butter for a side, which I haven’t done in a long time but want to do every day for the rest of my life.

Raspberry and Blackberry Pancakes with Potatoes

Not to mention we started the day with raspberry and blackberry pancakes with potatoes. We ate well Saturday.

Sunday I just couldn’t keep my tuna helper concoction to myself anymore.

Allyson's Tuna Helper Creation

I made it for PT and he loved it! I traded out the cheddar for pepper jack and it was even better. A little crushed black pepper! Love.

Shrimp Fried Rice and Spring Rolls

We rounded Sunday out with shrimp and veggie fried rice and spring rolls. In retrospect, I would have slapped that leftover rice on another shrimp pizza, but it was good with asparagus, broccoli, carrots and green pepper, too.

The soup of the weekend?

Purple Soup

Red potato and back bean with carrots and onions. Served with a hunk of freshly baked bread, of course. It is purple and delicious!

Off to Lula for dinner. Reliving all this food has made me really hungry.

Grandma’s hat is coming along!

To Row 35

Group classes tonight and tomorrow, but I think I’m going to work on the sweater. This pattern is complicated! And we chat so much, and I help with patterns and run around like a crazy person. It is a pain when I mess this up and have to take it out. With the sweater I’m just knitting the second sleave, which is super easy. Eh, I’ll risk it. I want to show it off! And get it done.

Chinese Dinner

I’m sad this picture turned out dark, but that is veggie crazy fried rice (red pepper, carrots, broccoli, red onion, and mushrooms) and store bought egg rolls. Amazing! And only cost about $6, for four meals, $4 of which were the egg rolls. I finished it for lunch, but could eat that exact meal again for dinner tonight.

Oh! And I chatted with my mom this afternoon and she was concerned that I make her sound like a crazy person. My mom isn’t crazy. My mom is great! My mom knit that amazing sweater and started on a vest already because she is so pumped about knitting clothes now that she knit that beautiful sweater.

(I hope you are happy now, Mom)

Wednesday night at toy class I got started on my Fitted Knits Sweater Jacket!

Lionbrand Homespun and Carron Simply Soft

It is knit yoke down! Which is interesting and something I’ve never tried before. I originally wanted to use two strands of the Homespun held together to get the fuzzy yarn look of the original yarn, but it was expensive. It is a little hole-ier than I would like it to be, so maybe I’ll knit more and decide to spring for the extra 3ish skeins of yarn. I’m going to keep going this weekend and see how it looks.

I mailed out the Valentine’s Day presents yesterday morning, of course forgetting to take a picture of Grandma’s bears. I think it is safe to post my mom’s duck!

Mommy's Duck

She doesn’t check the internet at home and that is where she is for Valentine’s weekend! I hope the packages get there tomorrow! Its cute, right?

Fried Rice

I made some fried rice for lunch this afternoon. SOMEHOW I had a lot of broccoli stalk. SOMEONE doesn’t like the stalk and I’m too crazy to throw it away. Thus, veggie fried rice with carrots, broccoli stalk, and tomato. Thanks, Lori, for the hot tip! Use cold rice! I put it in some butter and stir fry sauce and it was a great lunch. It gets me looking forward to summer when all I do is stir fry huge mixes of vegetables and eat them on my porch. Sigh.

PT and I, despite our apathy towards Valentine’s Day, have some special food on the menu for tomorrow that I will share with you soon. I don’t know how good it is going to look…(hint!)… but it will taste amazing and that is all that matters, even if you have a blog half dedicated to food.